It happened last summer, when an undercover Graham police detective was sniffing around on his beat.

The objective of undercover officers in Operation Summer Fun was to purchase drugs. But one man targeted in the investigation offered guns as well. It was an unexpected, unsolicited offer.

“We decided to buy as many as we could from him to get them off the street. We hoped we could clean him out,” said Capt. Steve McGilvray, with Graham police. “We took our time. We did it piecemeal. This took weeks and months to do, so it didn’t seem like we were trying to buy them up all at once. We did it that way not to excite the guy and make him suspicious.

The officer bought eight guns for $1,875 and recovered two more firearms — a combination of handguns, rifles and shotguns. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reimbursed the department for the money spent on the guns. The man who sold the guns wasn’t identified and is still being investigated on federal gun charges, McGilvray said.

The two-month operation ended in July with 25 people arrested on 114 felonies and six misdemeanors. Most of the charges were drug related.

Though authorities agree it’s easy to find and illegally buy guns on the street — the process might only take a few hours — local undercover operations focused on removing illicit firearms from circulation aren’t routine. Instead, local undercover work often focuses on drugs.

What are the differences between drug buys and gun buys? Why doesn’t local law enforcement spend more time infiltrating and thwarting the routes criminals use to get guns to commit more crimes? The answers are tied up in the covert and decentralized gun trade here and in federal jurisdiction, authorities said.

Unlike the flow of drugs into the area, the local gun trade doesn’t necessarily rely on a widespread black market. Illegal gun sales are more likely to be one-off, one-man operations. Drug dealing is widespread.

“There are known drug dealers but not as many known gun dealers,” Burlington Police Assistant Chief Chris Verdeck said. “It’s hard to go out and solicit that type of thing. When we do hear of someone selling guns, we try to get in that circle. But it doesn’t come to us all that often. And it’s hard to get in that circle.”

Burlington police bought guns in undercover operations or through informants only three or four times in the last several years, Verdeck said.

“It’s probably not quite as easy as getting dope, but you can get them,” said Randy Jones, Alamance County Sheriff’s Office spokesman. “Guns are available if you’ve got the money.”

Police believe many of the firearms that end up in the hands of convicted felons are likely stolen. Many of those guns just “go missing” and aren’t reported as stolen.

Guns are also frequently bartered for drugs. Verdeck said it’s not uncommon for people to bargain away their guns or even vehicles to get a fix. Once they’ve gotten what they want, they report the item stolen.

And often, when a felon is charged with possessing a gun, they say they took them from relatives.

As a matter of routine, local law enforcement agencies — from Gibsonville to Mebane — run federal ATF traces and National Crime Information Center searches on all guns recovered in investigations and searches. That process checks a gun’s serial number, make and model with a national database of firearms reported stolen and show a gun’s history of lawful transactions.

In the 2011-12 year, Burlington police ran 223 ATF traces on firearms involved in crimes, seized as evidence or found in searches. Information on how many of those were listed on NCIC as stolen, if any, wasn’t available.

Agencies rarely get a “hit” on a firearm trace indicating that it’s stolen. That’s because gun owners infrequently log the serial numbers and identifying information of their firearms.

“The (ATF) trace shows if that weapon has shown up before from us or another agency. This also shows locations from where weapons come from, as in what area of the country. This helps show trends as it relates to sales of weapons,” Verdeck said.

Most often, the ATF is called in to follow through on possible leads. Jones said that’s done because they have agents focused solely on controlling illicit weapon sales.

It’s also because federal gun laws carry more weight than state laws, Jones said.

“It’s about the best use of your time, money and resources: Do you go out and try to work cases that the ATF already does? Your smarter move is to go ahead and grab the ATF,” Jones said.

A glimpse at local gun thefts, charges:

Gibsonville police charged three people with larceny of a firearm in both 2011 and 2012. One person was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon. No one was charged with selling a firearm without a permit.

Graham police charged 13 people with larceny of a firearm between 2009 and 2012. Ten of those were stolen from homes; two were taken from cars.

Between June 2009 and June 2012, Burlington police charged 85 people with possession of a firearm by a felon. There were 85 firearms reported stolen during the same time period.

Page 3 of 3 - The Alamance County Sheriff’s Department made 85 arrests on larceny of a firearm between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2012. Deputies charged another 72 people with possession of a firearm by a felon in that time.

Mebane police took 31 reports of stolen firearms between 2009 and 2012. Officers recovered seven in that time. Five felons were charged with possessing firearms in those four years. One person was charged with illegally selling a firearm.